High Resolution Orthoimagery (Twin Cities)

High-resolution, natural-color orthoimagery was flown for the
Minneapolis-St. Paul urban area in 2012, 2008, 2006, 2004 and 2002. The 2006 imagery
included partnerships with Ramsey and Hennepin counties.

National Aerial Photography Program

NAPP, a nationwide program
coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey, produced photographs of
Minnesota for two time periods:

1991-92: Most of the state was flown in spring of 1991; the remainder
was completed spring 1992. See
flight map. Photos are available in both color-infrared and black-and-white; the
latter were used to produce statewide digital orthophotos (DOQs).
DOQs are computer-readable air photos that have been processed to
minimize distortion.

1996-98: Over half the state was flown in summer 1996,
one-quarter in summer 1997, and the remainder in summer 1998. These photos are black-and-white only; there are no plans to produce digital orthophotos.

The original images from both flights are 9" x 9" and cover about 25
square miles at an approximate scale of 1:40,000. The photography was
acquired at 20,000 feet above mean terrain with a 6-inch focal length
lens. The flight lines are quarter-quad-centered on the 1:24,000-scale USGS
maps. Enlargements of several sizes up to 36" x 36" are available.
For more details, see the following USGS site:

National High Altitude Photography

The
NHAP program predated NAPP
from 1980 to 1987 and was coordinated by USGS to acquire aerial
photography of the 48 conterminous states every five years. This
interagency program was designed to eliminate duplicate efforts in various
government programs and to maximize the use of government funds to build a
uniform archive for multiple uses. In 1987 the program name was changed to
the National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) in recognition of
modifications in the user requirements and flight specifications.

NHAP photography was acquired at 40,000 feet above mean terrain and
flight lines were centered on the 1:24,000-scale USGS map series. Two
different camera systems were used: a 6-inch focal length lens was
used to acquire black-and-white film at an approximate scale of 1:80,000
and an 8.25-inch lens was used to acquire color-infrared film at an
approximate scale of 1:58,000. A dual port camera system was used to
acquire simultaneous coverage.

Other programs

Topographic
map production: From the late 1940s through the mid-1980s, the USGS contracted for
aerial photography to produce 1:24,000-scale topographic maps. If you have a
particular area of interest in the state, look at the date of publication
in the lower right corner of the published map. It is very likely that USGS has photographs of that area 2 to 5 years earlier. Photography was
almost always black-and-white, at scales around 1:24,000 and taken during
leaf-off season.

1950s
USGS photos online: View or download 1950s USGS topographic
map production air photos from the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources'
LandView website. DNR has scanned the hardcopy photos as gray-scale
images; each photo covers about ten square miles. Note that the
photos are not georeferenced. The project is on-going -- to see a
status map of which areas are covered, go to the LandView site, choose
"Historic Photo Centers" as the foreground layer and then click
on the "refresh the map" button (circling arrows). To retrieve a photo, click on the information button (an "i" with
an arrow) and then on a colored dot showing a photo center location (the
legend shows which color corresponds to 1950s photos).

Single
frame records: this large and diverse group of aerial photos
is from the USGS EROS Center's historical film archives. The photos
date from 1940 to present, and they were originally acquired by a wide
variety of sources.

Biological Resources Division

Mississippi River: The Biological Resources Division,
Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin, has posted
scans of
air photos for selected areas along the Mississippi River from the Twin Cities
to Iowa.
The photos were generally taken since the early 1990s, in various scales,
some in natural color and some in color infrared, some rectified and some
not. All data sets have metadata which should be read for details.

Voyageurs
National Park: color-infrared 1:15,840-scale photos taken in
1995-96 as part of a vegetation mapping project are available for viewing online.

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